You don’t really know what it’s like for the other person until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.

Well yesterday I didn’t have to walk a mile, in fact I just stayed home, but I did gain new insight into what it is like to be my wife or more accurately my children’s mother.

I was on dad duty.  How hard can that be?  It’s not so much that it’s hard but it certainly is limiting.  Between taking kids here and there, making meals, playing games, teaching cycling skills and otherwise being available, when do you get your own time?  I don’t know how my wife does it.

So Tracey, thanks for all the time and effort you put in to raising our kids.  It would be hard doing it on my own, thank you for sharing the load.

I read Made To Stick and found the book to be very helpful.  I have tried to incorporate the simple “success” process advocated by that book into my presentations where possible.  I liked the book so much I’ve been following the authors via their blog.  I recently noticed that they moved to a new website address with a new blog.  In my day job I as a search optimization consultant I help companies make their websites stickier.    In looking at the new website I noticed a couple of really simple changes the authors could implement that would make their site stickier.

I sent an email to Dan Heath mentioning the two configuration changes he could make that would make his blog better.  A couple of emails later and brothersheath.com had more readable URLs and a way to organize content around their SUCCCES(s) model.  I normally get paid for this kind of work but in this case I thought I’d implement a bit of advice found in Six Pixels of Separation and provided the assistance for free.  As a thank you Dan sent me the advance copy of Switch.

So far I have only read the first chapter and I have not been disappointed.  Once again the authors have written a book that presents ideas in a straightforward easy to digest manner.  I had a little trouble putting the book down so that I could write this post.  I’m guessing I’ll be finished it by this time next week.

My friend Gerry has told me more than once when it comes to contracts:  ”one page for marriage, 10 pages for divorce”.   That is my advice to you!  Contracts aren’t about protecting the upside, they are about limiting the downside.

I especially liked his thought on price:  ”What’s the cost of doing business with you? Let’s call it dollars plus friction.”  For me dollars plus friction is a key factor in why someone would want to work with you.  For me this is also expressed as “it’s not my job”.  Who wants to work with the person who doesn’t want to help or is only interested in what is good for them?  That’s a lot of friction.